Council member gives 92-yr-old Rays fan playoff tickets

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

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Tampa Bay Rays fan Elvira Mullin, 92, heads to the Trop Friday. Watch the story Watch Video

PINELLAS COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- Longtime St. Petersburg resident and Tampa Bay Rays fan Elvira Mullin has two tickets to Friday night's playoff game, plus a cow bell and some new Rays gear.

The 92-year-old received the gifts from St. Petersburg's Council Chair James Bennett (for her unyielding loyalty to the hometown team).

"I was a Dodgers fan for a long time," Mullin said. "But I had something at home, so I thought I'd hang of with it."

Elvira grew up in a little town outside of Ocala where she fell in love with the game.

"My uncle was on the Reddick baseball team and he was the catcher so we would go every Saturday afternoon," she said.

She hit a few balls herself in her younger days.

"I missed some but I was pretty good," Mullin said.

Proudly covered in her Rays logo ball cap and T-shirt, Mullin walks the streets around her south St. Petersburg home every morning.

It's just one of many ways she pays homage to her team, according to Mullin's daughter, Dalceda Thompson.

"If you listen religiously to a baseball game on the radio every night, in town, out of town, I just thought it would be nice for her to go," Thompson said.

Thompson was trying to find some tickets to take her baseball fanatic mother to a playoff game when a city staffer noticed Mullin on her daily walks.

It wasn't long before Bennett found out about Mullin and decided to hand over to her his own city-issued playoff tickets.

"Oh boy! I'm just waiting to get there," she said.

When Mullin heads over Friday to watch the Rays take on the White Sox it'll be only the second Major League Baseball game she has seen in person, despite her long life-long love for the game.

Left fielder Carl Crawford is her favorite player.

Mullin's daughter will cheer on the Rays along with her mother in the stands Friday.

Bright House Sports Network will have complete coverage of the game with a live pre and post-game show, starting with Game 1 of the series. Catch it all on Channel 47 starting at 1 o'clock Thursday afternoon.